Peter Farmer is a composer whose musical roots are varied. His father sang with the Wiffenpoofs at Yale and his mother was a pianist who introduced him to the classics. In his early teens, he discovered jazz, first Traditional, then Swing and Duke Ellington, and finally the Bebop school. He credits his love of polyphony to the influence of traditional jazz. He was inspired to take up the trumpet and at the age of eighteen he attended the Lenox School of Jazz at Lenox, Massachusetts. where he played in an ensemble directed by Kenny Dorham. After an extended period as a jazz trumpeter, he switched to saxophone in 1985 and was active for some years as a muscian in the Boston area.
Farmer received his Bachelor of Music in composition from the Boston Conservatory in 1969, where he studied under Avram David. Two years prior to that he attended the Ferienkurze für neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany where he participated in composing and performing 'Ensemble', a cooperatively composed orchestral work under the direction of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Farmer attended the University of Michigan where he recieved his M.M. in composition in 1976. His teachers were William Albright, William Bolcomb, George Wilson, and Leslie Bassett. He received his D.M.A. in composition in 1982 from the same university and since then has taught music theory/composition at Berklee College of Music and theory/solfege at Lowell State University.
The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra recorded Farmer's 'Symphony No. 1' in 1996, and he has written three more symphonies since then. In 1999 his 'Concertino for Tenor Sax and Orchestra' was recorded by the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra of Prague. His Symphony No. 2 was recorded in 1998, and his Symphony No. 3 was recorded in 2000, both by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra and the same group, enhanced by the Brno State Choir, recorded his 'Psalms' in 2002. Farmer has written two piano concertos, the first of which was recorded in 2002 by the Slovak Radio Orchestra.
